RFID Device Lets Patients Administer Their Own Pain Meds

"The software is simple," Conley says. "It uses a wizard that guides the nurse through the steps to program the MOD." The nurse inputs the patient's oral medication prescription dosage and frequency during the programming process, which requires that the patient hold the wristband up to the MOD's RFID interrogator to be read. The programming process also requires the nurse to present his or her RFID card, which carries an ISO 15693 RFID inlay encoded with a number identifying that employee, to the interrogator as well. In response to reading the card, the body of the MOD opens to allow the nurse to remove an empty pill tray or insert a full one.

To prompt the MOD to dispense pain medication, the patient holds the wristband up to the device and selects a number on a sliding dial to indicate the pain level, on a scale of 1 to10. This enables the MOD to be used in compliance with a mandate by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals, requiring hospitals to take regular assessments of patient pain levels during drug administration.

Once it reads the patient's wristband tag, the device dispenses a single pill.

The patient wristbands are provided by Proximities, which makes RFID-based wristbands used for identification, age verification, access privileges and customer relationship management (CRM) data acquisition. Proximities employs a patented design that integrates an RFID inlay antenna into the wristband's clasp.

Once it is secured onto a person's wrist, the only way to remove the wristband is to cut it open, breaking the linkage between the inlay's antenna and its RFID chip. This ensures that if a patient removes the wristband, no one else—another patient, for instance, or a hospital staff member—can use it to access the pain medication within the MOD. "It's the RFID technology that provides the security for the device," Conley says.

In 2006, the MOD was used in a clinical trial involving cancer patients at the Halifax Health Medical Center. Results from that trial, according to Avancen, showed that 95 percent of patients involved in the study found the device easy to use and said they were better able to control their pain by using it rather than relying on nurses to provide the pills. What's more, 84 percent of nurses involved in the study said the MOD saved them time.

According to Conley, the Halifax hospital is gearing up for additional trials in the post-operation wards within its orthopedics and heart surgery areas. A single MOD unit and a software license cost $2,995, she says; the wristbands and pill trays are sold separately.